Lost in the media hubub regarding the possibility that Detroit may be put under the control of an Emergency Manager (EM) was related news about Inkster, Michigan. I reported in October and then again in November that Inkster is on a glide path toward a take over by an EM. The penultimate step toward that final outcome was taken this week as Governor Snyder established a team to review Inkster’s finances.
The state took a big step today towards making Inkster the next Michigan city to fall under the oversight of an emergency manager.Governor Snyder has appointed a seven-member review team to delve deep into Inkster’s city finances. A preliminary review has already found the city is in ‘probable financial stress’.
The city has struggled to deal with a multi-million dollar deficit. This week, the city laid off 20 percent of its police officers and the police chief announced he’s leaving too.
If the review team finds Inkster is facing a ‘financial emergency’, the governor may appoint an emergency manager to solve the problem.
Emergency managers are already in place in Flint, Benton Harbor, Pontiac, Ecorse and the Detroit Public Schools.
If Inkster and Detroit are added to the list, the chart from my previous post will look like this:
| City | Population | % African American | # of African Americans |
| Benton Harbor | 10,038 | 89.2% | 8,954 |
| Detroit | 713,777 | 82.7% | 590,294 |
| Ecorse | 9,512 | 46.4% | 4,414 |
| Flint | 102,434 | 56.6% | 57,978 |
| Inkster | 25,369 | 73.2% | 18,570 |
| Pontiac | 59,515 | 52.1% | 31,007 |
| Total | — | — | 711,217 |
[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]
Again, Michigan had 9,883,640 residents in 2010, 14.2% of whom were African Americans for a total of 1,403,477. With the addition of Detroit and Inkster, the percentage of African Americans in Michigan without representative local government will be 50.7%.
Over half.
